A Branch of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, USA

DEFENSE against DISEASE

As the world continues this week with headlines dominated by COVID-19, we take a look at how we can think about predictions. Even if they come as dire warnings, as our lead author points out, predictions are not set in stone. And prayer that recognizes divine Love’s all-embracing power can break through individual and collective fear and anxiety. It breaks through the hypnotic fear surrounding such warnings.

The following article written by Bea Roegge explains how this understanding is practised in family life.

“”Your Daughter Will Break Out With Measles on Christmas Day.” This is what the mother of one of our daughter’s friends told me on the telephone. She was being caring by telling me that she had unknowingly allowed our daughter to be exposed to the disease when she visited their home.

I felt a surge of fear for my children. But I had learned a lot about contagion a year or so before. And from this, I knew it was not the time to be afraid, but instead to prove, through prayer, that God does not create His children capable of harming one another through any means, including infectious diseases. I prayed. And our daughter never came down with measles—then or ever. Nor did I hear of any more cases in our school district . . .

Under a heading designated “Mental Infection,” Mary Baker Eddy once wrote, “More certain is mental contagion than material” (My True Light and Life, Boston: The Writings of Mary Baker Eddy and The Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity, 2002, p. 512). While recognizing that all inharmony of mind and body has more to do with the human mind than with the body, Mrs. Eddy insisted that the followers of Christian Science, which she called the law of good, obey civil laws, including those requiring vaccinations.

Those who accept the mental nature of disease do not dismiss exposure to contagious diseases and epidemics lightly. As was proven in my case, much more is required than listening sympathetically, or fearfully, to reports of contagion and its dangers. I have come to see that what is required involves looking at anything that is harmful squarely in the face, to see that it is obviously not God created, to deny its validity, and then to consciously reflect on spiritual truths relevant to the situation . . . ”